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As a member of the MIAA and NCAA Division III associations, Hope College sponsors
22 varsity sports for men and women. The college is home to the 2014 NCAA Division
III National Championship women’s volleyball team.

“You Made Us for Yourself: Creation, Worship and Human Destiny in St. Augustine”

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“You Made Us for Yourself: Creation, Worship and Human Destiny in St. Augustine”

Upcoming Talk and Book Release Party with Jared Ortiz,
Hope College professor and executive director of the Saint Benedict Institute

Dr. Jared Ortiz, who is a member of the Hope College religion faculty and executive
director of the Saint Benedict Institute, will talk about his new book, “You Made
Us for Yourself: Creation in St. Augustine’s Confessions,” on Thursday, Oct. 13, at
7 p.m. in the Maas Center auditorium at Hope.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Ortiz’s lecture, “You Made Us for Yourself: Creation, Worship, and Human Destiny in
St. Augustine,” will explore Augustine's rich understanding of creation as God's gift
of a beautifully ordered cosmos which is in dynamic motion back toward Him and whose
destiny is to be transfigured through Christian worship. It is being presented by
the Saint Benedict Institute and co-sponsored by the college’s Center for Ministry
Studies and Department of Religion.

Ortiz, who is an assistant professor of religion, joined the Hope faculty in 2012,
the same year that he completed his doctorate at the Catholic University of America.
He teaches Catholic studies and is co-founder and executive director of the Saint
Benedict Institute, the Catholic spiritual and intellectual center that serves Hope
College. Ortiz teaches courses on the Incarnation, church history, Catholic Christianity,
theological hermeneutics and early Christianity. His scholarship focuses on early
Christian theology, especially St. Augustine. He also has scholarly interest in liturgy
and Latin patristic thought. Ortiz’s book “You Made Us for Yourself: Creation in St.
Augustine’s Confessions” was published with Fortress Press in April 2016.

The Saint Benedict Institute is a ministry of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church
in Holland. It seeks to promote and nurture intellectual work done from the heart
of the Catholic Church, to foster an ecumenical community of Catholic Christians and
friends committed to the renewal of culture, and to aid in the formation of intellectually
and spiritually mature Christians by making available the riches of the Catholic tradition
to Hope College and the wider community. More information can be found at saintbenedictinstitute.org.

The Maas Center is located at 264 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets.

Hope College alumnus David Paul will return to his alma mater to deliver this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Lecture at Hope College, presenting “Dare to Be BOLD” on Monday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.

Hope College will feature the address “Is Korean Re-unification Possible?” by Dr. James Person of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Tuesday, March 15, at 9:30 a.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall through the Great Decisions Global Discussion Series of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan.